Ya Bezzer!

Well I hope Baraclough had the final say as that should be the managers perogative but Pearson and McDonald where signed due to a number of factors including the chairmans beneficence and the fact that both players had ties to the club. And the point remains that I find it highly doubtful that without Pearson and McDonald we would have turned round. Alternative histories and all that but it remains my opinion. As for fitness levels, I'm sick to death of hearing about them. Sure, we started the season unfit due to the pathetic pre-season instigated by McCall but that was not the problem outside of August. The people that go on about fitness on this forum are the same people that said Lasley was finished and should be put out to pasture. The simple fact of the matter is if you have mental energy, you have physical energy. If, on the other hand, you are getting humped ever week, there are tensions in the dresssing room, people are making bad mistakes, you can't seem to get a lucky break, and you are down the bottom of the league, well, guess what Einsteins, it don't look good on the pitch. Most of us have played the game even if it was only school football or boys club level. No one remember the old lead boots when you went 3-0 down or you are on a bad run and the opposition scores first? Look at Accies, when they blow us away was that fitness or confidence? When we put 4 past them, was that fitness or confidence? Get your head around this. There are no unfit professional footballers, outside of players coming back or playing through injuries, getting regular football in this league. It's impossible. Not addressing Andy P in particular here in case he thinks I'm attacking him personally, this is a general point. In future anyone going on about fitness should go into sports science details as to what our training regime was, why and what was wrong, explain why we've gone through probably the most successful sustained spell for the club since the 1950's using it and then go into detail as to why the new training regime is better, why and what benefits we can expect from it. Or you could stop grasping for incredibly simplistic answers and just belt up about something you know absolutely nothing about! I'll reiterate the point - looking unfit and being unfit are too very different things and team confidence is the single biggest factor in this league where most teams are of pretty much the same standard. Anyway, back to the point, I think Baraclough is a fairly inexperienced manager, with all due respect to Scunthorpe and Sligo, Motherwell is a totally different level of football from the stature of the players he's dealing with on a daily basis, to the hugely increased media interest and the standard of football and opponent. I think he's made a lot of mistakes and, lets be honest about this, skirted very close to losing the fans and therefore his job. He's taken risks that may relegate us. However he may well grow into the role and there are a few signs he may be doing so. I want to see us maintain a level of performance and if we continue to improve, play good football and win matches even if we are relegated, my view would be 'Do I feel positive about Baraclough getting us up again?', rather than 'He put us down, fire him'. Overall, I think that's a pretty even handed view to take.

I've said before I don't want to go back to Hamilton, well, ever! Also Dundee probably wouldn't have much to play for post split might be a bit of a stroll for them whereas Accies are bound to be more up for entertaining Motherwell.

I think it's fairly obvious that Pearson and McDonald have turned us round, rather than Baraclough. If those guys hadn't joined I doubt very much we'd be on the run of good form that we are. I'm speculating because I don't know anything for sure but I think there was some player resistance to changes Baraclough made and perhaps the dressing room didn't have confidence in him, as a minor name in the game, but with things turning round now the camp is probably a lot happier and less fractious. That gives Baraclough a chance to win over the players and prove his coaching methods. I said elsewhere that I think Baraclough changed too much too soon. We won his first two matches, and had found a wee bit of form before under Kenny Black. There was no need to make the drastic changes that Baraclough made in almost one foul swoop. He should have got us out of the relegation zone first before he changed the whole regime at the club. It was a foolhardy and reckless thing to do and we may well still pay the price for that terrible spell through January/February. He got his priorities wrong in my opinion and was far to eager to put his stamp on the club. That's raging ego at play there. Despite the up turn in form we remain the favourites to go into the play offs and perhaps even to be relegated since we will likely face Rangers. However I would personally give Baraclough a second chance depending on our performances post split and if we do finish 11th, in the play offs. If we maintain something like the form of the past month or so I think it would be a harsh axe that fell on his head. However if we tail off or fail with a whimper in a play off then I think you'd have to assess it on the next 6/8 performances.

For me all the pressure was on St. Mirren on Wednesday, if we had lost we had a few other eventualities we could cross our fingers for, including winning a play off, but for St. Mirren it was do or die. For this match all the pressure if on us. With Ross County almost certain to get 3 points on Saturday we have to win or it's going to take a miracle for us to get away from the play off spot. Partick Thistle are in pretty good form and 5-1 victory aside we have a pretty poor record at Firhill. We played very well but St. Mirren were abysmal, we will be playing a much better team at the weekend. I expect this to be a tough, tough match. Fingers crossed!

McCall made a complete cunt of the beginning of the season but you can't blame him for relegation. We were clear of the play off place by a distance and then we had a terrible run through January and February when we were utterly pathetic. As well as not getting any points some of the major drubbings we got at that time could still put us in the play off place on GD. Baraclough tried to change too much, too soon and the risk he took is still wavering on a knife edge going into the game on Saturday. I was never McCall's biggest fan but if he'd been allowed to bring in two Champions League level players in Pearson and McDonald it's hard to believe we would have struggled so badly in the first place.

Jury is still out on Baraclough. We were 5 points clear of the play offs after the win against St. Mirren in December and the horrendous run afterwards under his charge might still put us down. Certainly we've improved massively over the last month or so but it could be too late. Hopefully not, obviously, but it could be. Saturday is massive because with Ross County playing St. Mirren I think we really need to get a win or we are overwhelming favourites for the play off place. Whatever happens I think if we can perform at our recent level till the end of the season, then he deserves the chance to continue.

For me you could give it to Erwin, Ainsworth, Lasley or McDonald. Tough decision but I'm afraid I'm going for Lasley again. He played the full 90 minutes.

Superb performance, although it has to be said St. Mirren were terrible. Totally dominated the 90 minutes and with better final ball and a wee bit of luck with offside decisions it could literally have been 10. I honestly don't know who I'm going to give the man of the match award to. Erwin was outstanding in the second half maybe faded a bit in the second half. Ainsworth ripped them to shreads. Lasley was tremendous, as was Pearson until he got injured. Johnston did well, Sutton came on and scored 2 goals, Dom Thomas has come on and produced some outrageous skill to set up the 5th..... Unfortunately Ross County won so Saturday is going to be a huge match.

James McFadden playing his first match in a while for St. Johnstone. Do us a favour James!

Permanent.

I came on here to be very bullish about the match and then something crept into my head. "What if Alan Gow scores?" The answer to that is I'll probably have to be diamorphined by four sturdy men and a doctor.

I'd be very wary about bringing Hammell in. Sure, we've missed him but he's hardly played this season and he's come back only to break down again. I don't think he's essential to defeating St. Mirren tonight and I'd keep him back for now.

This. We might not score 3 but this is the attitude you have to have at the bottom. We have the points advantage, the GD advantage, we've got better players, we are at home and we are in better form. Go into this game with nerves and we are a Championship club next season. St. Mirren HAVE to win, all the pressure is on them and we should be piling it on them instead of worrying like some old dear. If we score the first goal their moral will collapse.

Probably favourites now, with Hibs bottle crashing. However Rangers next game is away at Qos, and the last two matches of the regular season are against Falkirk and Hearts. They have improved but they are not putting teams away, even their recent 4-1 against a terrible Cowdenbeath team needed 2 very late goals to make it look more convincing than it was.

2013-14 - 11th - Hibernian - 35pts 2012-13 - 11th - St. Mirren - 41 pts 2011-12 - 11th - Hibernian - 33 pts 2010-11 - 11th - St. Mirren - 33 pts 2009-10 - 11th - Kilmarnock - 33 pts 2008-09 - 11th - St. Mirren - 37 pts 2007-08 - 11th - Kilmarnock - 40 pts 2006-07 - 11th - St. Mirren - 36 pts 2005-06 - 11th - Dunfermline - 33 pts 2004-05 - 11th - Dunfermline - 34 pts 2003-04 - 11th - Aberdeen - 34 pts 2002-03 - 11th - Dundee Utd - 32 pts 2001-02 - 11th - Motherwell - 40 pts 2000-01 - 11th - Dundee Utd - 35 pts In an average season 36 pts keeps you safe. Doesn't look like it's going to be an average season.

Obadeyi, from what I've seen of him this season, is a very good player. He's going to give any full back problems.

Partick are actually in pretty good form at the moment. They've beaten St.Johnstone, Dundee Utd, Inverness and got a draw at Pittodrie recently. The only team to beat them in the last 5 was Ross County. Given our record at Firhill, which if you take away the 5-1 victory last season is pretty poor, I don't think anyone should be too bullish about beating Partick. That is going to be a difficult match for us. We are also going to be under a lot of pressure in that match because even a draw probably isn't enough, assuming Ross County beat St. Mirren. I believe the Ross County/St. Mirren match is played on the Monday which gives them a bit of advantage there as well.

We need to be utterly ruthless on Tuesday and plunge the sword right into their chest. No fucking about, no nerves, no harking back to previous games, no thinking about Ross County. We are in a gladatorial battle with two others, fighting for survival and on Tuesday one of them is on their knees and we have the chance of finish them off. Of course we could have done the same to Ross County earlier in the season and we turned in an insipid performance and they haven't lost since. Obviously not seen St. Mirren since the last match but by all accounts in the last few matches they've looked like a beaten team and they've only scored once in about 5 or 6 matches. Tuesday is do or die. Kill or be killed. That simple.

Long was garbage yesterday from virtually the first minute. He missed everything not just the cross that led to the goal. The first time he caught the ball was in the 32nd minute and Kilmarnock must have had 5 or 6 crosses in that time and a couple of shots. For a big boy he has no presence about him. He doesn't use his height and weight at all and as far as punching the ball goes Twardzik is much better. Twardzik has made some errors but over 25+ games and he's turned in man of the match performances and kept us from getting right drubbings. Long has probably had as many mistakes now as Twardzik in a quarter of the matches. Twardzik has a better clean sheet record than Long, and Long has been playing in a team that's performing much better with a half way credible defence in front of him. I said after the match yesterday that Baraclough will have to have a hard think about it. The stakes are huge now and I'm afraid confidence in Long is being whittled away, something we really don't need when we are battling for survival. No one wants to change a goalkeeper at this stage in the season, in our position, but we just cannot afford any more mistakes. However it is in goals has to perform. End of story.

Not exactly damning evidence.

St. Johnstone are in decent form, I think that's our best bet of any other team beating them at the moment.

It actually looks EVEN worse in the highlights and it looked pretty bad at the time. It's like he was blindfolded or something.

I don't go with this argument. If it's 0-0 and a forward misses a sitter it's still 0-0. If the goalkeeper makes a howler it's not. The two are not comparable in terms of consequence. At the end of the day you can't put a goal that was actually scored next to a theoretical event that might have but didn't happen. However I do agree that Erwin is getting plaudits because he scored a late-ish goal and because of that people forget the preceding 60 minutes of the match. The manager brought on Sutton and switched Erwin's position for a reason.

We were much better with Sutton at centre forward than Erwin. Defenders fear Sutton, they don't fear Erwin. Just having Sutton on the field changes the whole KIlmarnock approach to the game. Also, Erwin was a completely different player today when he went out wide. Bringing on Sutton and putting Erwin out wide was the key decision in the game and we looked miles better for it. I never said anything about Sutton being MotM, I just said we looked much more dangerous as a team when he came on, which was undeniably the case.

Are you saying we were better in the first 58 minutes than we were in the final 32+? Kilmarnock slightly shaded the first half. Second half we were well on top, especially after Erwin went out wide replacing Grant who contributed nothing.